The book, which was published June 11 by Knopf Doubleday, has garnered rave reviews and quickly became one of the industry's most hotly pursued titles thanks to its international appeal.

The story revolves around three super-rich, pedigreed Chinese families whose predilection for gossip, backbiting and scheming reaches a fever pitch when the heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia brings home his American-born Chinese girlfriend to the wedding of the season.

"Crazy Rich Asians is that immersive page-turner I am constantly searching for but so rarely find," Jacobson said. "Kevin's writing took me into a world I'd never seen or imagined and got me so invested in the romance at the heart of it that I could not put the book down until I saw whether or not they made it. This novel represents an enormous opportunity for Color Force to tell a universal story to a global audience."

The book was repped by UTA, Alexandra Machinist at Janklow & Nesbit and Peter Nichols of Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler & Feldman on behalf of Kwan.

UTA and the author’s reps are working with Color Force to structure financing from Asian and other international sources for the development and production of the film, which will be produced outside of the studio system.